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Tuesday, 21 September 2010

This morning I was photographing my friendly robin, singing his head off again, when a coal tit landed on a feeder, grabbed a seed and flew off to deal with it in the hedge. This rarely happens when I'm in the garden so I stationed myself as close to the feeder as I dare and focused on it. It needed a heavy crop, but I managed a half decent pic (within the limits of the crop) of this frustrating little bird.

A fleeting glimpse...

I hadn't gone looking for dragonflies this afternoon and was surprised to see a few common darters, including a tandem ovipositing pair, and a brown hawker at the litter pit. Because I wasn't expecting them I hadn't taken the macro lens, so it was a good chance to try out the 70-300 on them. It proved less than ideal on the darters, not too bad on the hawker which landed on the grass. What did I say about the browns settling high up? Shooting without flash the depth of field wasn't great, but it was okay.

Tatty wings are to be expected in late September

With a few dragonflies on the wing I set off for the dragonfly pond, only for the sun to dim. A solitary male common darter was spotted. So I took a photo of a toadstool which had an appealing colour and texture before leaving for home.

If the sun shines tomorrow I might go take a last look for southern hawkers. Then again, I might not.

"I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work - the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not for others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means."